Freddie as F.R.O.7.
Freddie as F.R.O.7. (also known as "Freddie the Frog" in the United States) is a 1992 British animated musical action fantasy film written & directed by Jon Acevski. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 14, 1992 and in the United States on August 28, 1992. In 1995, the movie was re-released on VHS by MCA\Universal Home Video under an alternate re-edited version with new narration from actor James Earl Jones. Plot The movie begins in the Middle Ages at Monaco, Monte Carlo, France and it tells the story of Prince Frederic, a 10-year-old boy who lived with his kingly father in a huge castle by the ocean at Monaco and was taught magical powers. His mother, the queen, has been dead for over a year after drowning at sea in a storm. One day, while Frederic and his father are out horse riding in the forest, Frederic's father is thrown to his death from a great height after his mount is spooked by a strange red cobra. Now an orphan, Frederic is taken in by his paternal aunt, Messina who (as the king's sister) accedes to the throne, but only as regent until Frederic comes of age to assume responsibility as the next ruler when she must step down. Soon Frederic realizes that the cobra he saw in the forest was Messina (who was also responsible for conjuring up the storm that took the life of his mother) and rather than kill Frederic, Messina transformed him into a frog and attempted to capture him. Soon, both of them fall from the castle window and into the raging ocean where Frederic is saved in the jaws of a giant sea monster. The power-hungry Messina vows to rule the world and destroy Frederic. The monster really turns out to be Nessie (Phyllis Logan). As Messina departed, Nessie's tail became trapped under a boulder. She befriended Frederic, who in turn used his powers to free her tail from the boulder. Nessie took him near dry land and says that if Frederic ever needed her, he would whistle. Then, Frederic leaped into the night sky, jumped through time zones until the late 20th century and landed in a swamp full of frogs where he would spend the rest of his childhood in his new life as Freddie the Frog. Freddie eventually grows up to become a member of the French secret service (known as F.R.O.7.). He is then called to London, England by the British Secret Service, as some major famous buildings in the United Kingdom are vanishing. By the time Freddie arrives as he left Paris, France, Nelson's Column, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral & Stonehenge are already missing. Freddie meets the Brigadier G, who seems to have trouble keeping himself and his comrades from getting tangled up in the phone cord. Freddie is introduced to Daffers, an Englishwoman who is an expert in martial arts and Scotty, a Scotsman who is an expert with weapons. Things take a turn for the worse as Canterbury Cathedral disappears. Freddie also meets Trilby, a sneaky member of the secret service. During a trip to Ascot, he discovers that the villain capturing the buildings is called El Supremo and he is working alongside Messina, who spends most of the time in her cobra form. Freddie also learns that El Supremo is planning to steal Big Ben next. Knowing that Daffers and Scotty would not want to be taken, Freddie tells them the next target is Windsor Castle and they hide on Big Ben where they are captured by a giant robotic snake. They go to a secret island in Scotland and learn that El Supremo plans to use the buildings, by shrinking them to a size of a trophy and using them as batteries to a giant crystal, which will send a powerful sleeping virus across the world (starting with the United Kingdom), which will put people to sleep, allowing him to invade and enslave them. Scotty freaks out as the last required building is captured: Edinburgh Castle. Freddie and Scotty are thrown into a pool of sea monsters while Daffers is taken to be brainwashed into a mindless follower of El Supremo and Messina. El Supremo uses the crystal to send his sleeping virus all across Great Britain and the whole country shuts down. Freddie whistles and Nessie appears to save them both from being devoured and Scotty is saved from drowning. Nessie shows her family to Freddie, who then asks them to help defeat El Supremo by submerging the patrolling submarines. Freddie and Scotty save Daffers from the snake guards while in disguise and the three of them return to stop El Supremo from conquering the world. They have to battle an army of soldiers, but in the process, Daffers and Scotty get too close to the crystal's energy and fall unconscious. Freddie manages to infiltrate the crystal's energy with his mind powers and destroys it, but he also falls unconscious. El Supremo and Messina arrive to kill Freddie, but he, Daffers and Scotty defeat El Supremo by shrinking him down to the size of an ant and traps him in a matchbox. A final battle then ensues between Freddie and Messina, who attacks by shape-shifting consecutively into a bat, hyena, scorpion, and boa. As Messina begins to crush Freddie in her boa form, Freddie remembers comforting words from his late father and finds the strength to escape and tosses her into an electrical pole high up where she gets electrocuted. Brigadier G and his team arrive in time, and Trilby is discovered to be a spy for the villains. In the end, Britain is restored to normal and Freddie heads off to the United States to deal with some bad guys. Voice Cast *Ben Kingsley as Freddie\Prince Frederic **Edmund Kingsley as Young Frederic *Jenny Agutter as Daffers *John Sessions as Scotty *Phyllis Logan as Nessie *Nigel Hawthorne as Brigadier G *Billie Whitelaw as Messina *Brian Blessed as El Supremo *Victor Maddern as Old Gentleman Raven *Jonathan Pryce as Trilby *Sir Michael Hordern as King *Prunella Scales as Queen *Adrian Della Touche as Narrator (British release) *James Earl Jones as Narrator (U.S. release) Production The movie was inspired by bedtime stories that Jon Acevski told to his son about his favorite toy frog working as a secret agent. It was filmed from 1989 to 1991. Release Miramax Films purchased "Freddie as F.R.0.7." (re-titled as "Freddie the Frog") for distribution in North America. A week after its release in the United Kingdom, the film was released on August 28, 1992 in 1,257 theaters. It was released with a G rating (though some sources say it was given a PG rating). It was also released theatrically in Spain during the 1992 Christmas season. A contributing factor to the movie's failure was that most animated features produced by mostly independent companies; in this case, Hollywood Road Film Productions tended to be critical and commercial disappointments at the time while Disney was at its peak of their popularity with new releases after a long stream of modestly successful films and disappointments since Walt Disney's death. Hollywood Road Films and other studios (such as Sullivan Bluth Studios) could not compete with the universal acclaim of Walt Disney Feature Animation and their animated pictures. However, some animated films not made by Disney would come close to matching the success of Disney's animated films. Box Office "Freddie as F.R.0.7." flopped at the domestic box office as well, grossing little over $1 million. In May of 2007, AOL claimed the film is the lowest grossing animated film of all time by counting its US gross ($1,119,368), while (as of August 2009), two widely released animated features, The Ten Commandments which grossed $952,820 in 830 theatres (and also starred Ben Kingsley) and Delgo ($694,782 / 2,160 theatres) have grossed less than "F.R.O.7." Reception "Freddie as F.R.0.7." was a critical and financial flop despite a large publicity campaign and huge media coverage of the film's production. It received negative reviews in its home country and in North America. Renowned animation critic Charles Solomon said, "this 21-gun stinker makes Saturday-morning television look good." He continued by saying "the improbable story is so full of gaps, it's difficult to believe writer-producer-director Jon Acevski ever read his own screenplay." Derek Elley of Variety said: "A shake ‘n’ bake mixture of virtually every toon genre going, it makes up in energy what it lacks in originality." Stephen Holden of the New York Times said: "The movie, which bills itself as the most ambitious animated film ever to come out of Britain, is a convoluted adventure story that swirls classic fairy-tale mythology together with modern pop-cultural iconography into an unwieldy hodgepodge." Category:Films Category:1990s films Category:British films Category:Musical films Category:Action films Category:Fantasy films Category:Miramax films Category:G-rated films